An Indian-national who found work here as a PMET was sentenced to 12 days in jail last Friday after he pleaded guilty to one count of insulting the modesty of a woman.

The court heard that the foreigner, Sheth Jimit Dhairyakant who worked here as a business development manager, committed the offence while he was taking a GrabShare ride with a stranger to Bedok, just after midnight on 26 Oct 2017.

The woman first boarded the GrabShare vehicle at Marina Bay Sands and sat in the rear passenger seat. The driver picked up Dhairyakant at Cecil Street shortly thereafter and he joined the woman in the rear passenger seat.

The woman’s suspicions were aroused when she noticed the foreigner holding his mobile phone in her direction when she was not looking at him directly before quickly moving it away to his face when she turned towards him.

Hearing some shuffling noises, the woman turned towards the PMET and saw that he had unzipped his pants and was touching his exposed private parts.

The quick-thinking woman immediately texted the GrabShare driver to inform him of what was happening beside her and asked him to take them to a police station. When the driver did not respond to the text, the woman raised her voice and asked him to drop her off at a location beside a police station.

The woman promptly lodged a police report and Dhairyakant was subsequently arrested. During police investigations, the foreigner confessed that he had been aroused by the clothing the woman wore and that he was prompted to “fantasise”.